Name: Bloody Brisbane
ISBN: 9780975154410

Jack Sim

A compendium of Brisbane's most infamous and memorable homicides of the 20th Century. Twelve spine tingling tales that will take you to the scene of crimes such as death at the Grange and The Valley Inferno and introduce you to the perpetrators of The Vampire Lesbian Killers and The Hamilton Hammer Horror.

Murder in the River City

Bloody Brisbane

Note(1): This book and review involves factual content of a violent nature, including murder and sexual assualt.
Note(2): This is a review based on an unfinished book

Oh boy. This book made me struggle. 

I live in Brisbane, and grew up only 2-3 hours away. I love true crime. I thought I would enjoy something out of this book. 

Instead I was met by a number (thirteen to be exact) of dull, under researched, and incredibly poorly written recounts of crime. Never did I expect to be bored to the point of not finishing a story about vampire lesbian killers that occurred down the road from where I work. (I also expected to at least learn the names of the 4 convicted killers and yet I only ever learnt one).

First of all, some of the writing was just downright lazy. 

"One account (untrue)..."

I mean, you couldn't even write out a sentence about the account being discounted? Let alone give me any sort of idea WHY or HOW the account was proven false.

Secondly, just the structure of the stories was bad. There were so many holes in some of the stories, or the writing would be so disjointed and recounted in an odd order that, as a reader, I was often quickly confused and lost, not sure the exact details of the crime. The amount of times that I reread paragraphs trying to make sense of just the bare facts of a case until I eventually gave up.

And then the actual content. Or the lack thereof. 

I have so many issues with this, because this is a factual crime book. At the very least you should include facts that explain those crimes. 

From the cases that I read (which was about 8 of the 13) the sources were incredibly lacking. I mean, some of the cases were based off solely newspaper articles. One of the cases was based off one, a single, local newspaper. Which is just lazy. I understand that these are old cases (the most recent case occurred in 1989) and therefore it can be difficult to find written accounts or talk to people involved. But if you are going to publish a true crime book you need information. If there is a lack of sources you need to state that this is so, maybe even discuss why there is such little information. 

In the Marjorie Norval case, it is stated that there are over 10 million words of archive information about the case. And yet the book sources two archive documents (so they obviously had access to the archives?) and one newspaper article. That's it. 

In the Mayne murder, the alleged killer is barely discussed beyond a line saying he was in the area and that he was hung. This is despite the author's opinions that he was wrongfully convicted and the theories surrounding other suspects. No evidence is given for WHY the author thinks it was a wrongful conviction. Instead the main discussion is about a suspect who was never convicted which the author ALSO thinks didn't do it.

The frustration I felt having attempted reading this book is ridiculous and plentiful. Just, please, don't even try.

Bloody Brisbane Murder in the River City

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